NOBBY SOLANO is backing Kevin Keegan to do what the Newcastle United manager does not believe he can – and get the club back into the Champions League.

Keegan thinks the best United can hope for in the next couple of years is to battle it out with the clubs outside the recognised top four of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.

But after watching from afar, the little Peruvian, who says his son is a Geordie boy after his time at St James’s Park, thinks Keegan may be under-selling himself.

The 33-year-old midfielder, who cost United £2.76m when Kenny Dalglish bought him from Boca Juniors in 1998, told me today: “Of all the memories I have of Newcastle United none are better than the Champions League, and I do not see why my old club should not get back into it under Kevin Keegan.

“Obviously, I wasn’t around when he was at St James’s Park as a manager the first time and I don't really know him.

“But when I was on the bench against Newcastle at Upton Park at the end of the season I watched him closely, especially when West Ham were two goals up.

“He clearly still had faith in his team and, just as important, his players all had faith in him.

“To tell the truth, I cannot remember many teams in the Premier League coming back after being two goals down.

“But Newcastle did that day, and in the end they could even have won it and a lot of it was down to the impact Kevin Keegan had on them.”

Solano, of course, had plenty of good days not only in a black-and-white shirt but also in the white shirt of his country.

He has a winning goal to his name for Peru against Brazil.

And he will always have a place in United’s folklore after knocking in a match-winning penalty against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Solano also sent Arsenal packing in Graeme Souness’ time as manager of United and who can forget his superb goal against 1860 Munich in the Olympic Stadium in the InterToto Cup in the summer of 2001?

But it is Europe’s top competition Nobby keeps coming back to, adding: “I have had a good career and one of the highlights has to be that season five years ago under Sir Bobby Robson.

”I was on the bench when Craig Bellamy almost beat Feyenoord on his own to take us through to the next stage, and I played in the San Siro when we came away disappointed at just achieving a 2-2 draw with Inter Milan on their own ground.

“I am a West Ham player now and my ambitions are all with them, but I would love to see my old team back in the Champions League.

“If there is one man who can take them there, that man is Kevin Keegan, although it is going to be very difficult for anyone to break the current top-four monopoly.”

Solano only appeared for a couple of minutes as a substitute against United at the end of the season – still enough for him to receive a tremendous reception from the Toon Army.

A couple of weeks later he signed his West Ham season off with a goal in the 2-2 draw with another of his former clubs Aston Villa.

Solano will be back at Upton Park next season but eventually he feels that he will return to Peru where he is still a national hero.

However, he insists: “Wherever I am in the world I will always have a place for Newcastle in my heart.”